After putting a footed glass stuffed with frothy, pink liquid atop a thick marble bar, the bartender gently pours one thing glittery and purple over my drink from a tiny pitcher. Like sorcery, the shimmering liquid — constituted of butterfly pea flower tea — cascades down in swirling wisps of mauve and indigo like a Bali sundown. This isn’t a classy craft cocktail bar with mustachioed mixologists and $30 cocktails. I’m having a drink on the Crimson Lobster in Instances Sq.. The cocktail, referred to as “Below the Purple Sea,” appears to be like significantly better than it tastes — someplace between an alcohol-spiked Pacific Cooler Capri Solar and Bitter Patch Children watermelon sweet. Fortunately, I got here in with low expectations, so the flamboyant presentation greater than made up for the drink’s uninspiring taste.

Chain restaurant bars aren’t precisely identified for his or her mixological prowess, however as shoppers grow to be extra cocktail savvy, some company restaurant manufacturers have been quietly elevating their recreation. Late final yr, I had an exemplary Espresso Martini at a Cheesecake Manufacturing facility in Queens, which got here in a voluptuous 8-ounce Martini glass with a head of froth like a freshly drawn Guinness. After canvassing a number of standard company chains like Olive Backyard, Texas Roadhouse, and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. over the previous a number of months, I can say with confidence that, whereas some bars present indicators of enchancment, chain restaurant mixology stays a combined bag.

The Glory Days of TGI Fridays

Regardless of the ignominious state of many chain restaurant bar applications, it might be irresponsible to disregard the foundational position that the unique TGI Fridays, based in New York Metropolis by Alan Stillman in 1965, performed within the cocktail revolution. “Within the early days, TGI Fridays was an incubator of bartending ability and self-discipline throughout a interval when bartending was thought-about a useless finish,” wrote Robert Simonson in his ebook, “A Correct Drink: The Untold Story of How a Band of Bartenders Saved The Civilized Ingesting World.” To grow to be a bartender at Fridays again then, staff needed to commit over 400 cocktail recipes to reminiscence and go a complete written examination. Aptitude bartending, popularized by the 1988 film “Cocktail,” additionally emanated from behind the bars of TGI Fridays.

“Once I labored at TGI Fridays in London, we did six weeks of one-on-one coaching,” says Philip Duff, the founding father of Previous Duff Genever who labored as a bartender and workers coach in numerous places of TGI Fridays within the British capital between 1992 and 1994. He credit the corporate’s meticulous coaching routine with serving to to kickstart the cocktail renaissance within the U.Ok. and cultivating a technology of well-trained bartenders. The construction that these methods offered additionally helped form his profession as a marketing consultant for bars and liquor manufacturers. Nonetheless, Duff readily admits that the chain is now not a dependable supply for craft cocktails. “Fridays was the cocktail bar,” Duff says. “Now it’s following traits as a substitute of setting them.”

A current go to to a Fridays close to Madison Sq. Backyard in Manhattan proved him proper. There, I sampled a brand new summer season cocktail referred to as the “Lavender Fields Lemon Drop Martini.” It’s a fundamental bitter recipe, made with Skyy Vodka, lemon juice, and lavender syrup. The cocktail itself wasn’t almost as satisfying as my banter with the quick-witted bartender, who appeared like she’d been shaking drinks for so long as I’ve been alive. The lavender taste was overpowering, like a blast of Glade air freshener, however the drink was palatable and neatly introduced in a coupe with a twist of lemon.

“Each cocktail at TGI Fridays is just too candy,” says Izzy Tulloch, the pinnacle bartender at Milady’s in New York’s SoHo neighborhood. “Ask for a plate of lemon or lime wedges, and you may just about steadiness something that hits your desk.” Tulloch admits that the majority chain restaurant bars immediately are mid, however she nonetheless believes there’s a time and place to get pleasure from them. “Applebee’s has greenback Margaritas generally. You don’t have to know greater than that,” she says. “They’re dangerous, however they’re a greenback, and you will get half-priced apps and have your self a time.”

Chain Cocktails Hit Completely different

Some bartenders have a smooth spot for chain eating places as a result of they’ve had firsthand expertise working in them. “I labored in a Chili’s in highschool,” says Sarah Morrissey, the bar supervisor of the lately reopened Le Veau d’Or on New York’s Higher East Facet. “I used to observe the daytime bartender make vats of Margarita combine from powder and water. For some motive, I nonetheless suppose the Presidente Margarita is unbelievable. It’s the ‘fajita’ of their cocktail checklist.”

To realize scale, chain restaurant bars have to be streamlined for velocity and consistency. Signature cocktails are designed to style the identical throughout a whole lot of places, so components are sometimes prefabricated and laced with sugar and preservatives. Many chains additionally restrict their cocktail menus to acquainted classics like Cosmopolitans and Margaritas as a result of buyer loyalty is earned by way of predictability, not inventiveness.

However as bar shoppers grow to be extra educated about cocktails and spirits, chain eating places are displaying indicators of leveling up their beverage applications. Whereas some nonetheless really feel caught within the ‘90s, others are evolving to satisfy the second. I doubt that Cheesecake Manufacturing facility would’ve supplied a drink referred to as the Aperol Spritz Martini (the basic Venetian aperitivo in Martini type) on its menu 10 years in the past, because it does immediately. Trendier cocktails just like the Paloma and Mojito have additionally been popping up on extra chain restaurant menus lately.

Once I ordered the Patrón Dragon Fruit Margarita at Longhorn Steakhouse (Olive Backyard’s carnivorous sibling), the cheerful bartender introduced me with a branded cocktail shaker the scale of a Stanley tumbler stuffed to the brim with pulpy, magenta liquid. After replenishing my salt-rimmed glass a number of instances, I might estimate that the shaker contained the equal of three normal-sized cocktails. Even when the Patrón tequila was indiscernible within the drink, the three-for-one worth proposition (solely $13.49) greater than compensated.

Robust Drinks Blended With Nostalgia

Blue drinks have additionally grow to be a staple of contemporary chain-restaurant bars. At Texas Roadhouse, I accepted the bartender’s invitation so as to add an “island kicker” to the Kenny’s Cooler. The test-tube-like vile of coconut rum and peach schnapps comes propped upright within the cocktail, whose colour is uncomfortably near window washer fluid. Your complete drink menu at Texas Roadhouse appears designed to coax company into the reckless choice so as to add kickers to already weapons-grade cocktails. Crimson Lobster additionally affords Blue Dream Sangria with St-Germain, blue curaçao, Moscato, white cranberry juice, and lemon-lime soda. I didn’t have the braveness to order one, however the gentleman down the bar from me gave the impression to be having fun with his. If I hadn’t seen the menu, I might need simply mistaken his drink for Gatorade Glacier Freeze.

Drink-wise, Olive Backyard is curiously uncomfortable with its personal allegedly Italian heritage. Regardless of the wealth of iconic nationwide cocktails, just like the Negroni and Aperol Spritz, Olive Backyard eschews Italian classics. As a substitute, it affords fruity chain-washed concoctions just like the Italian Rum Punch, which is about as Italian as one thing you’d be served within the Italy pavilion at Epcot Middle. The cloying cocktail is available in a pint glass and tastes just like the bartender drained 15 unfrozen freeze pops right into a glass of ice with just a few ounces of bottom-shelf rum. “Olive Backyard is for Martinis,” says Tulloch. “Don’t get loopy, only a Soiled Martini with gin or vodka.”

If you happen to fancy one thing tropical, you’d be higher off with the Rum Forest Rum from Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., which is served in a collectible pilsner glass (included together with your buy), and made with a mix of respected rums like Myers and Don Q. The addition of grenadine and pineapple juice evokes the flavors of an inexpensive plastic cup Mai Tai at a touristy beachside bar in Waikiki. The Castaway Cocktail at Outback Steakhouse can also be respectable, even when its recipe (Cruzan Ardour Fruit Rum, Malibu Coconut Rum, Absolut Mandarin, blood orange bitter, and pineapple) is a shameless car for product placement. The drink tasted vaguely like SweeTarts dissolved in coconut milk, however I nonetheless most well-liked it to the Olive Backyard model.

As a lot as some chain restaurant bars have improved, their bar applications are nonetheless held again by bureaucratic methods that prize effectivity over high quality. Duff isn’t optimistic that the glory days of TGI Fridays will ever be restored. “The potato skins nonetheless style the identical. The sweet-and-sour combine is okay,” he says. “However folks’s tastes have modified. A cocktail that was acceptable in 1995 will not be acceptable immediately.”

Except for nostalgia, the first attraction of chain restaurant bars stays consistency. Bartenders like Tulloch nonetheless see worth within the chain restaurant bar expertise, so long as folks go into it with the best mindset. “Don’t take your self or the restaurant too severely,” she says, “and it is likely to be the most effective night time of your life.”